Reinstatement of priority on grounds of "due care" and "unintentional/due care" accepted.
A 12-month novelty grace period is available if:
- The applicant authorizes others to use
- manifest misuse by a third party
no
no
yes. For an invention with the same subject matter, the applicant may file a patent type conversion request within 2 months from the date of receiving the patent application decision, but no later than 10 years from the application date, and change the patent type from invention to utility model .
no
It is protected for 10 years from the date of application, and can be renewed for 3 times, each time for 5 years, with a maximum protection of 25 years.
- via Paris Convention : 12 months from earliest priority date.
- via Nationalization of PCT : 31 months from earliest priority date.
- Validation of European Patent in EPO member states: 3 months from the date of European patent grant
20 years
2-5 years
The BPO conducts formality examination of design patent applications.